


The Bad and the Ugly...A talk about Dany

by orphan_account



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: A discussion about Dany in 8.05, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-13
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2020-03-02 14:33:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18812872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: This isn't a story. This is just my thoughts on Season 8.05





	The Bad and the Ugly...A talk about Dany

**Author's Note:**

> Is this how Dexter fans felt? Lost fans? 
> 
> Is this what it feels like to follow a series for so long and then watch as they completely fuck up the ending?

[D&D be like](https://i.redd.it/b3h8sbkdxvx21.jpg)

 

I never expected Dany to win. I didn't expect her to live. 

 

I thought that Westeros would reject her. Because she's a woman, because she's foreign. Because she's the Mad King's daughter with 3 fire breathing dragons and foreign armies. However, I always thought that Dany would rise above it. I always thought that she would sacrifice her life to beat the White Walkers  _despite_ being rejected by Westeros, because ultimately, that is the difference between Dany and Cersei. Dany legitimately cared for her people. That is why Dany went North whilst Cersei stayed home. 

 

But I was wrong

 

 

 

**The pacing**

I don’t like the pacing of Dany’s arc in season 8. I don’t like how in episode 3 she is fighting to save the living from the White Walkers and in episode 5 she is ordering a mass genocide of Kings Landing.

Look at other TV shows like Breaking Bad. It is possible to write a story where your main character gets corrupted slowly by power, but the show runners missed the mark. Dany’s descent feels like it’s a plot point they remembered that they needed to include and they rushed it in for the last moment. They spent 8 seasons portraying Dany as a heroic figure and any questionable acts she had were always swept under the rug and the consequences of her actions were never explored. If they knew that this was her ending, then they needed to set it up better. The fact that they didn't, is poor story telling

 

That being said I do believe that this violent and dark turn is in line for Dany. If you’re a book reader, you will know that at the end of ADWD in her final chapter, Dany starts to go down a darker path as she finally embraces fire and blood, (If you haven't read the Meereneese Blot). In the books, there is foreshadowing for Dany being the one who burns KL. [link here](https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/38fdmx/spoilers_all_all_doors_were_red_a_theory_on_the/) If you look at the show, Dany has threatened to burn cities to the ground. She did it outside Qarth in season 2, and she did it again in S6E9 when she returned with the Dothraki when she threatened to burn the slaver cities to the ground.

 

Is this turn of character rushed? Yes, but the signs were there, I just didn’t see them, and that’s on me.

 

**Nihilism**

This to me is the worst part of what they did to Daenerys. In the end, she ordered the murder of a city full of over 1,000,000 inhabitants _after_ they surrendered. Like what is the point? In the behind the episode, D&D said that Dany wanted to make it personal, but why not go after the Red Keep? Why slaughter an entire city full of innocents along the way?

 

All it did was turn Daenerys into a monster, no better than Cersei and even worse than Aerys, and that to me is the worst part. In the end, she is no better than her father. The Mad King. The man she spent so long trying to avoid becoming

 

What sort of message does it send that after 8 seasons, at her stiffest test, in her darkest hour, not only does she fall to the level of her father, she actually surpasses him?

 

It’s the story telling us that we can’t escape our own legacy, and that the actions of our fathers will define us?

 

That to me, is a bleak and empty message to send. It goes beyond cynical, it’s nihilistic and frankly, I don’t think GRRM will go that far.

 

GRRM gives us stuff like this:

 

 

> Every day she sent them what she could, but every day there were more of them and less food to give them. It was growing harder to find drivers willing to deliver the food as well. Too many of the men they had sent into the camp had been stricken by the flux themselves. Others had been attacked on the way back to the city. Yesterday a wagon had been overturned and two of her soldiers killed, so today the queen had determined that she would bring the food herself. Every one of her advisors had argued fervently against it, from Reznak and the Shavepate to Ser Barristan, but Daenerys would not be moved. "I will not turn away from them," she said stubbornly. **"A queen must know the sufferings of her people.**

 

 

> I told you, I know our little queen. Let her hear that her brother Rhaegar's murdered son is still alive, that this brave boy has raised the dragon standard of her forebears in Westeros once more, that he is fighting a desperate war to avenge his father and reclaim the Iron Throne for House Targaryen, hard-pressed on every side … and she will fly to your side as fast as wind and water can carry her. You are the last of her line, and this Mother of Dragons, this Breaker of Chains, **is above all a rescuer.**
> 
>  
> 
> No. Mother to us all." Missandei hugged her tighter. "Your Grace should sleep. Dawn will be here soon, and court."
> 
> "We'll both sleep, and dream of sweeter days. Close your eyes." When she did, Dany kissed her eyelids and made her giggle.
> 
>  

 

GRRM describes a woman who will ride out into a group of sick people in order to truly emphasise with their suffering. He has her order Drogo's khalasaar to stop their raping and pillaging of innocents. He pratically breaks the fourth wall by having a random character who has never met Dany, describe her as  _above all else, a rescuer_

 

I don’t think GRRM will undo all of that work to have her butcher a city full of innocents after they had surrendered. That is on D&D.

 

Think about everything that Dany has been through in this story, she has been raped and sold. She has survived assassination attempts, she has faced the Night King but this is what breaks her? The death of Missandei and Rhaegal? **Now** she folds as if she hadn’t learned a single thing? Now she turns her back on the innocents and becomes a genocidal tyrant?

 

 

 

**Conclusion**

I feel like I can say more. I feel like I probably will say more, but I perhaps I’ll save that for after the finale. I’ll watch it live just so I can see it and get it over with.  I think we all know how this story ends for Dany now.

 

Ultimately, I do understand GRRMs vision for Dany. She is an example of a character who starts out with good intentions, but she has been slowly corrupted and broken down by the harsh realities of the world around her. She saves the world but gets none of the love and adoration that Jon does, and that is tragic. She does the right thing at every turn but the narrative beats her down. She goes North to fight the dead? Loses her friends and half her armies for no reward. She finds love in Jon, but even he turns against her because he couldn't keep a secret.

 

Yet there is nothing tragic about what she did this episode. There is nothing to redeem for her. It's just dark. 

 

There were good parts to the episode, and as a stand alone episode, I actually enjoyed it. I liked how even the Northmen turned into savages. I liked how they really showcased the horrors of war and the horrors of Dany’s dragons. GRRM has often compared dragons to weapons of mass destruction and this episode really made that clear.

 

 It’s just when I have to connect the episode to the rest of the series that it starts to unravel

 

My biggest gripe is not the dark twist for Daenerys, but the hopelessly bleak and nihilistic message that D&D attached it to. GRRM gave them the ending, but D&D have fucked up the tone. Is Dany the kind benevolent Queen she thinks she is? No. She's a Targaryen Conqueror whose words are fire and blood. 

 

But she is not a tyrant who will order the murder of a million people in cold blood. That is too far and it's a grim and nihilistic twist to a story wasn't needed 

**Author's Note:**

> Anyway. Please don't ask me to do season 8 fix its. I don't want to get my hands anywhere near this mess of a season. 
> 
> If anything, I'll write a future fic where some details of the finale get changed. If you've read my other story 'A bittersweet ending' you'll know what I mean. 
> 
> For any other Fan fic writers that read this. Please don't lose hope. Don't let season 8 take away from the good times you've had in this fandom. If you're a reader that doesn't usually comment, leave a comment on a fic that cheers you up, make the writers feel appreciated. It goes a long way.
> 
> Season 8 didn't give us what we hoped for, but we can get through it. Together.


End file.
